INTRODUCTION - The basics NFS Carbon Guide

Last update: 11 May 2016

Optimize your graphics.

For the beginning: Carbon is a skill based game in which speed and smoothness of driving values the most. And smoothness depends in many ways on how fast the game is running on your PC. Of course, when you switch on all of the graphics excellences, Carbon will look stunning, but lets get back to Earth. Without at least 40 frames per second (you may use programs like FRAPS to get the number of FPS Your PC is having) the gameplay could be in some ways more difficult. Therefore I highly recommend you to spend a few minutes optimizing graphic details to your PC and I also encourage you to disable additional effects such as motion blur. Yeah, I know that the Star Wars-like animation actually looks impressive, but nothing reduces the visibility in the way it does.

Set up your controls.

It's important especially, when you realise that you probably won't reach first place without using the nitrous. Some keyboards have strange blockade which is making some in-game key combinations impossible to use, like left arrow plus Shift. And as we go on, if you did bound nitrous with Shift key you will be unable to use it while turning left, when you steer using the arrows. And after all, even if Carbon, contrast to Most Wanted, gives the reasonable gameplay with the keyboard, I still recommend you to buy a gamepad. It makes your racing smoother, and even in-game menu is adapted for pad-based, console style navigation.

Use the nitrous boost wisely.

During the race, your nitrous meter will slowly fill up. The trick is to never let it fill up completely. When it does, you basically lose the "filling up" ability and you cannot use the nitrous boost as frequent as you could.

Avoid the lamps!

And all other mail boxes, bus stops etc. Indeed, in Carbon we don't have any serious damage model, which can inflicts on our car's performance, but every collision with any obstacle will slow you down. And scything a row of street lamps can bring your speed back to not.

Become a mechanic.

It's definitely worth to spend some time tuning the car to our own style of driving. Even if the setups are not playing as big role as they did in Most Wanted, the difference between understeer and oversteer is still huge and easy to see. It's also clear that on winding tracks you must pay more attention to acceleration, and when the track will have more long straights, then it's wise to use higher speed. There is no magic, it's only about spending some time on testing different setups to find one suitable for us and our own car. More about tuning in the "Tuning Section".

Look ahead.

Like in the real life, in Carbon it's better to look one corner ahead to keep everything under control. But it's at least as important to choose best camera view. The perspective, from which you will see the corners. There is no one best option and strong players prefer different cameras. I personally use the one from the front hood, but it's only a matter of getting used to the view you choose.

Manual?, maybe?

I personally prefer using the manual gearbox. I know that it may sound abstract to some of you, but it has many positives. Changing the gears manually allows for example to start more smoothly, but the most value is the possibility to reduce precisely speed before cornering. In fact, you don't have to even touch brakes most times, when using manual gearbox. Proper gear shift will do the trick. And without any additional circumstances you will ALWAYS reduce to the same speed. Having this effect on automatic gearbox, when you must brake in front of every corner is actually harder and requires more practice. Also, proper gear reduction with manual gearbox allows us to simply "throw" the car into the corner with great speed, like it's possible to do with the handbrake, but the "drift" is much easier to control and also much more effective.

Learn the corners!

It's very important to learn the corners. In Carbon the tracks are modular, which means that they are built with the same section of curves put together in different sequences. It means that, when we get familiar with separate corners, racing will become easier. Of course those combinations may be tricky, but while reading the tracks' descriptions you will easy find that many corners - especially the most difficult ones - reduplicates on more than one track.